Health Canada is so secretive about its inspections of overseas drug-manufacturing plants that Canadians can’t be confident their medications are safe, says a drug policy researcher. Alan Cassels of the University of Victoria said most prescription drugs are manufactured overseas but that Health Canada has released only limited information about its inspections of foreign manufacturing plants after he made numerous inquiries. Cassels said Health Canada has told him only that it conducted 35 inspections between 2006 and 2011, but won’t provide data on which countries were involved or the findings.
